Pharm.D. To Be

August 26, 2008

M.I.A.

Filed under: Clinical Rotations, Fun Times, Life, Pharmacy School — dsalyer @ 1:23 am

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. July was a very, very busy and tiring month. I was on the Adult Internal Medicine/Therapeutic Drug Monitoring rotation at UK. Needless to say, the entire month was challenging, but worthwhile. I was seriously dreading this rotation going in, but now it is over and I can look back and say that it wasn’t all that bad afterall. The hours were the long and the workload heavy, but I definitely learned a lot and was introduced to new environment for pharmacy. Afterall, since the first two rotations were horribly slow (and boring), I was in need of a faster pace.

This month I am at the Veterans Administration hospital on the Geriatrics rotations. There are two components: Drug Regimen Review, where we basically review patients’ charts for safety and efficacy of drug therapies; and Home Based Primary Care, where clinicians actually go out to Vet’s home instead of the Vet coming to the hospital. For this portion, we have considerably more say in patients’ treatment. The environment at the VA is completely different than UK. It is totally laid back, not to mention that the veterans’ health records are entirely electronic, which is awesome since you never have to get out of your chair! We have somewhat of a heavy workload, but stress is minimal and you can pretty much work at your own pace. This rotation has been interesting, and different, and I may still consider working for the VA in the future, once I am burnt out with Community Pharmacy. I am off in September and October, so I will be working full-time at the K.

In other news, Amanda and I made an offer on the house in Franklin. Since real estate is S-L-O-W and its pretty much a buyer’s market, we decided to make a low-ball offer, just to see what happens. After several days, the Realtor finally contacted me to let me know that the seller could not accept the offer. Now we are just waiting for their counteroffer. I pretty much have a top dollar amount in my mind, and I am pretty sure that we will be able to negotiate an acceptable price. I have plenty of faith that this will work out. We made the decision to move to Franklin at the end of September regardless of what happens. I have rearranged my rotations and both of us have put in our notices with our employers. If the house deal falls through we will try to find an apartment or house to rent, and if all else fails we can stay with her family for a while.

And now a little info about this past weekend.

Friday. I was off work and had nothing to do, so I called up Jon to see if he wanted to go to the Wild Turkey Distillery. Instead, we decided to head to Red River Gorge for an overnight camping trip. The wives were terrified that we would fall off a cliff or get lost in the woods. Needless to say, we had a great time and made it home alive. Hopefully we can make another trip before we move.

Saturday. Amanda’s friends Tiffany and Jayme came to visit for the weekend. Amanda knew that Jayme was coming, but had no idea that Tiff was coming, so she had a pleasant surprise when got home from work Friday evening. Jon and Emily came to join us and we grilled some N.Y. Strips. Then we spent the rest of the evening playing the Wii and Guitar Hero on the PS2. Sounds like fun, huh?

Sunday. We did absolutely nothing. That’s right, we all just lounged around all day and did absolutely nothing.

This coming weekend Amanda and I are going to Nashville for the holiday. All of her family are getting together at the lake and renting a huge pontoon boat. Unfortunately, I have to work on Saturday, so I will have to drive Amanda to Louisville so that she can ride down with her Sister, who is coming from Indy. Then I will drive down Saturday night after work. Since we are planning on going to the lake Sunday, I will make it in time for most of the excitement. I am sure Amanda will post an entry with all the details and some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

June 25, 2008

Picture This

Filed under: Fun Times, Life — dsalyer @ 7:08 am

It’s not very often that anyone from Virginia, especially my friends, come to Kentucky to visit. I think the last visit was from Paul in…well, a long time ago…2006 I think. I’ve been trying to convince my old friend Brandon to come visit for quite some time now. He kept saying he would, but nothing ever transpired. Finally, after about 2 months of discussion, he called for directions. Amanda still doubted that he would actually come–but he did. I tried to show Brandon a good time, although I am unsure if I succeeded. Hopefully he wasn’t too bored.

First I showed him around town and then we all went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse–who has an excellent NY Strip, mind you. Although the brewskies were less than palatable (but hey, at least we didn’t have to pay for them). After dinner, we headed underground to Redmon’s for some live music and a few drinks. Unfortunately, we arrived long before anyone else. But hey, at least we got to skip the cover charge. After Redmon’s, we headed over to Saddle Ridge Saloon.

Saturday, once we rose from bed around noon, we headed over to Woodford Reserve distillery. There are about 7 distilleries here in Central Kentucky, all within about an hour drive of our house. I have always wanted to visit one, so I made sure to include a visit in the weekend’s agenda. I had planned to also visit the Wild Turkey Distillery, but slept in a little too late to hit them both. After our Woodford Reserve tour, and a taste of delicious Kentucky Bourbon, we headed back to Lexington to eat at the best [reasonably priced] restaurant in Lexington: A. P. Suggins Bar & Grill. Were I also had a delicious NY Strip. Actually, it was even better than the Roadhouse. If you live in or near Lexington and haven’t been to Suggin’s, you are missing out. You definitely need to check it out. Call me up–I’ll meet you there and buy your dinner! After our delicious meal, we headed back to the house to plan our last night.

We headed over to Comedy Off Broadway (I’ve found that the openers tend to be funnier than the main act), where Auggie Smith and Dax Jordan provided more than a handful of laughs. Nothing beats a little stand-up comedy, followed by some drinks and pool at Marrika’s. I don’t think there’s anything I would rather do than hear some good stand up and shoot some pool. Since Marrika’s has a HUGE selection of bottled and draft beer, I decided to try a few new tastes. Then I feel in love with Carlsberg, which is brewed in Copenhagen, Denmark. I don’t know what it was exactly about this beer, but its taste was superior to all others. Although Amanda disagreed. But who cares what she thinks, I LOVED IT! After Marikka’s we headed home and just hung out for a bit and reminisced about old times.

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to check out Amanda’s blog about our Six Flags trip. [sorry about all the hyperlinks, I got carried away]

Carlsberg

Me Manda Roadhouse

Roadhouse Dinner

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Brandon Redmons

Brandon Chillin’ at Redmon’s (Notice all the people? Give it an hour though, and you won’t be able to move!)

Amanda Brandon Redmons

Um, you better watch it, Big Guy….there are plenty of ladies out tonight.

MeMandRedOutside Redmon’s

MandBrandRed

3

Just the three of us

WR

Woodford Reserve Visitor’s Center

Distill

Outside of the Distillery

barrels

What’s left of the day’s bourbon
(The barrels are pushed out of the distillery, then a mechanical arm knocks the barrels and rolls them to where they are now. Then, one of the workers will shove the barrel and roll it 500 yards down the steel track to be housed…Sorry, I thought that was pretty neat)

EntranceDistill

Entrance to the distillery…Exciting huh?

cooker

A look inside the sour mash cooker

Mash

5,000 Gallons of Sour Mash fermenting…Looks yummy, huh? Yeah, it smells even better ;)

Empty

A look inside the empty fermenter

copperdistill

Copper Stills imported from Scotland. These are the only copper stills in use in the United States.

(Sorry for the blur)

CloserStill

A closer look at the still in operation. (These were originally used in Scotland to make Scotch. Did you know that you can only make Scotch in Scotland? And bourbon can only be made in the U.S.? Interesting fact that I didn’t know.)

Barrel1

Look at all that bourbon! (One of those barrels could be yours…for a nominal price of $8,000)

barrel2

glass

Finished product…straight from the barrel.

Glass2

Bottling

Very small bottling facility

Bottles

Ready for the Liquor Store shelves!

taste1

Time for a taste!

taste2

Or two… ;)

kiss


wifey

Me and my beautiful Wife, Amanda

pool1

Time for some pool at Marikka’s

pool2

MandaBrandon

Thanks for checking out the pics. Be sure to leave a comment!

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